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Linking to Electronic Textbooks and Individual Chapters

Some electronic textbooks allow direct linking to the entire textbook or to individual chapters for course web sites. This may be as simple as copying the URL displayed by the browser, or may require constructing a new URL. Follow the instructions below exactly to create stable links. Reserves staff at the Health Sciences Libraries use these same steps to create links for electronic reserves.

Notes for Faculty

Following these steps will not bypass any access restrictions such as entering a user id and password for remote access. If you plan to create links for a course syllabus, be sure to explain any access restrictions to your students. Information about access restrictions is provided under the Information About Access Restrictions lock icon next to the title on the HealthLinks: Textbooks list. If remote access is restricted to computers with UW IP numbers, please refer your students to the HealthLinks Connecting to UW Online Restricted Resources page.

The urls generated in these instructions work for on-campus access and for off-campus users who have logged into the proxy server.

To Proxy a URL

Logging in to a campus web site or portal with a UW NetID does not automatically mean that any resources a user tries to access will be proxied. The user will have to log into the proxy server, use our bookmarklet, or use a link that has been proxied.

This is usually an issue when a faculty member creates their own web page of resources for a course syllabus. While this will work well on campus, it won't for remote users.

To create a URL that will force the user through the proxy server, prepend http://offcampus.lib.washington.edu/login?url= to the actual URL. If I want to make the link for ProQuest Databases (http://www.umi.com/pqdauto) available from off-campus, the URL will look like this:

http://offcampus.lib.washington.edu/login?url=http://www.umi.com/pqdauto

More information is available at http://www.lib.washington.edu/help/ezhelp.html.

URLs and access restrictions for electronic textbooks change frequently. The instructions below are accurate as of October 29, 2007. Be sure to check links at least once a quarter to make sure they are still functioning. If not, or if you have any other questions, email hsl at u.washington.edu or call (206)221-3418.

Linking to Electronic Textbooks

  • Find the desired textbook in the UW Libraries Catalog.
  • Right click on the direct link to the textbook.
  • Select "copy shortcut" from the dialog box to copy the stable url of the textbook.
  • Paste this url in the desired application.
  • Wherever possible, this URL will provide a direct link to the individual textbook. However, in some cases, it will link to a package of textbooks.
  • Note: This URL may look significantly different than the URL displayed in the browser after connecting to the textbook.

Linking to Individual Chapters

The method of linking to individual chapters depends on which package a textbook belongs to, as outlined below.

Harrison's Online

  • Connect to Harrison's Online.
  • Use the Table of Contents to find the desired chapter.
  • Copy the URL displayed by the browser when viewing the chapter.

MD Consult

  • Connect to MD Consult and find the desired chapter.
  • Copy the Bookmark URL from the end of the chapter: : /das/book/view/12345678/101/360.html/top
  • Remove the 8-digit number and slash (/) after /das/book/view/.
  • Add this URL to the root MD Consult URL:
    http://home.mdconsult.com/start_session?autologin=true&user=univwash&password=generic&targeturl=
  • The stable URL will look like this:
    http://home.mdconsult.com/start_session?autologin=true&user=univwash&password=generic&targeturl=/das/book/view/101/360.html/top

STAT!Ref

  • It is not possible to create stable links to individual chapters for STAT!Ref textbooks. You may, however, link to the entire package of textbooks.